Troy King--VOCAL for Victims?

Last week, I got a letter from Troy King, asking me to donate to his re-election campaign. I was intrigued by what AG King had to say. Right there at the top, he made clear that he was out there "fighting for the victims," and that is why we should send him back to Montgomery. Well, I do agree with King on one point--victims are an important aspect of crime and crime fighting, and justice involves respecting the victim. Since conservatives are ideally committed to the interests of justice, looking out for victims is a truly conservative thing to do. However, when I look beyond Troy King's repeated press conferences o the subject, I'm really struggling to find examples of how he has looked out for victims.

Several years before he took away the now-infamous case from Shelby Co. DA Robby Owens, Troy King took away a case from his 2006 Democratic opponent, John Tyson of Mobile. King stood with the victims then, and he took the case to court. However, Tyson noted that he was planning to present the case to the grand jury as well--he was simply waiting for another piece of evidence from processing. We'll never know the truth, but taken in context with King's 2007 decision, it seems that he has a bigger interest in standing with victims' families than actually making decisions as AG which help victims of crime.

In looking at this, consider the following about victims of crime--the people we see standing with AG King at his press conferences are a miniscule percentage of the actual victims of crime in this state. Every single day, an unfortunate number of Alabamians become crime victims. Many of them will never get the attention of a statewide elected officer. Instead, most of them will look for justice from their local District Attorney, the person they elected to represent their interests. That DA works with the AG and his officers to best provide for justice in their given area, and that is how the process should work. However, instead of working with this process, King has alienated DAs. When he seizes cases, this undermines the credibility of these District Attorneys. That means that the next time they sit across from a guilty defendant, that defendant can better bargain with the DA, since that DA's character has been compromised in public fashion. Also, these scandals detailed what a vast majority (all but 1 or 2) of DA's called a fundamental lack of communication with the DA's office. Thus, it would be fairer to say that, instead of being interested in victims of crime, the AG is most interested in the public cases, the cases most likely to draw wide amounts of media coverage.

Even then, though, the details are sketchy. Back in 2005, a group of Birmingham students set fire to a series of churches in rural Alabama. Troy King hosted a large number of press conferences, pledging harsh punishment for the young men. However, weeks after the cameras stopped rolling, King quietly placed the responsibility of prosecution back on the local DAs, forcing each to try the defendants and creating a situation of legal confusion. The defendants were eventually convicted, but only after grandstanding by the AG.

Then, there is the problem with the 2-year college fiasco. When Troy King was investigating Roy Johnson, president of the 2-year-college system, on top of asking for jobs for friends, he also asked for funding for VOCAL, a victims'-rights group. Newspapers published critical editorials, noting that this was effectively a strategy to "buy" votes in the next election. Although I question the truth of Troy King's position on victims' rights, I know that even if he feels passionately about the issue, that does not allow him to go ask for funds from someone he is investigating.

Thus, I do feel for the victims of crime in this state. However, I also know that if I am ever a victim of crime, as an ordinary Alabamian, I am unlikely to ever receive the bright camers and statewide media coverage. Instead, I will have to rely on the strength of local institutions which Troy King has steadfastly alienated. If AG King had problems with our local prosecution system when he was elected, he could have strengthened and changed it. He could have had more contact with DAs and willingly done the difficult work of improving our criminal justice system. Insetad, he has given me a lot of eloquent speeches on the issue without much action. I want to see the action, and having not seen this action, I can only believe that King has failed to deliver on his biggest campaign issue of the previous two campaigns.